Death Incarnate: Aegis of Merlin Book 7 (The Aegis of Merlin)

by James E. Wisher

  She rode to the basement and stepped out into a scene of chaos, but controlled chaos, unlike upstairs. On one of the half dozen fifty-inch-wide monitors was a scene featuring a wizard attacking a fortress with stone walls.

  Malice frowned. That building looked familiar. Whatever it was must have been important given that she’d been standing there for half a minute and no one had stopped to greet her.

  She gave an exaggerated cough and asked, “What is going on?”

  A middle-aged man in a business suit stopped and looked at her. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “Director! Forgive me, I didn’t notice your arrival. We have a bit of a situation. It seems the Lonely Rock is under attack.”

  That’s why the fortress looked so familiar. She’d assumed it must be somewhere else since no wizard could attack the Lonely Rock, not unless they were keen on committing suicide. “How is it possible that she’s using magic in a magic dead zone?”

  The man shook his head. “That’s something I’d like to know as well. We’ve alerted our partners in the Kingdom as well as the Empire of the Rising Sun and the Australian Republic. They have their own feeds, but no one has offered any potential explanations.”

  “What is your name?” Malice asked.

  “Simms, Director.”

  “If you don’t have an answer for me in the next hour, Simms, you’ll be looking for a new line of work.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to swallow. “Understood, ma’am.”

  Malice found an empty chair and settled in to watch the longest hour in Simm’s life. If he failed to get her answers, she’d find someone that could.

  Lady Dragon smiled as her most recent fireball detonated in the final watchtower, sending the guards flying out over the sides, their uniforms burning as they screamed toward the water a hundred yards below. The raid couldn’t have gone any better. The overconfident guards hadn’t even allowed for the possibility of a magical attack. They lacked anti-wizard weapons and the weapons they did have couldn’t penetrate her protective spells.

  Now only one obstacle stood between them and the main prison building: a thirty-foot-tall steel gate that sealed off the yard. Lady Dragon raised the scepter and chanted. The metal turned dull red, then orange, blue, and white before liquefying and running across the ground and down the cliff like a lava flow. A single word drew all the remaining heat from the molten steel, making it safe for them to enter.

  Inside, the yard was empty. Apparently the guards had given up trying to confront them directly. Either that or there weren’t any left alive to confront them. Best to assume the latter and keep her guard up.

  They crossed the dirt patch and Lady Dragon blasted the doors off their hinges. Beyond them waited a large processing room with a sealed-off area filled with supplies the prisoners would need as well as a computer. Further ahead a closed door led deeper into the prison.

  She gestured with the scepter and the tempered glass melted. “Lady Lion, the computer if you please. Find out where Morgana’s being held.”

  Lady Lion hopped through the hole and sat down behind the console. The click-clack of keys filled the silence and a minute later she looked up at them. “Isolation room on the second basement floor. She’s kept alone at all times save when she’s taken to a room called the experimental ward.”

  “Animals. Well done, Lady Lion. Where are the elevators?”

  “They’re on lockdown,” Lady Lion said. “We’ll have to take the stairs. Beyond the door, take a right and follow the hall to the end.”

  “Let’s go.” Lady Dragon gestured and blew the doors off their hinges and down a gray-tiled hall.

  The Hierarchs strode down the path, taking the first right and marching on. Still no one attempted to halt their advance. Perhaps the defenders thought they’d have better luck holding them off in the narrow confines of the stairwell. If they did, Lady Dragon had a surprise for them.

  A sign above the final door showed a stick figure descending a flight of steps. She paused and pressed her ear to the door. Nothing. Maybe there was no one there and maybe she needed to smoke the vermin out.

  Lady Dragon swirled her scepter and chanted. A thick cloud of black smoke appeared and at a final command flew under the crack at the bottom of the door.

  “Sulfur Dioxide?” Lady Tiger asked.

  “Concentrated. Unless they’re wearing masks, anyone beyond that door will be dead in three minutes.”

  Half a minute later the coughing started and shortly after that screams joined them. Lady Dragon waited the full three minutes before ending the spell, dissolving the gas. She pushed through the door and found a squad of heavily armed guards lying dead on the steps.

  “How did you know?” Lady Wolf asked.

  “I didn’t.” Lady Dragon stepped over the first corpse. “Not for sure. But it occurred to me that if the guards wanted to stop us, this was their last, best chance. Given our magical limitations, I decided to check to make sure. It would be a shame if one of you got shot so close to the end of our mission.”

  Lady Wolf gave no indication that the prospect concerned her overly. The group continued down to the next landing and pushed a heavy steel door open. At the end was a long hall lined with doors. No decoration brightened the dull gray stone and only an occasional, flickering bulb lightened the gloom.

  For centuries Morgana had called this wretched dungeon home. Lady Dragon’s rage coiled in her heart. All those who held them down from their proper place in the world would pay once Morgana was free.

  They marched down the narrow corridor, past gloomy cells, toward the isolation cell at the end of the way. Three doors from the end, a bedraggled figure slammed into one of the doors. All Lady Dragon could make out in the narrow window was a pair of mad eyes and some stringy black hair.

  “She’s gone, sisters. The guards wheeled her downstairs this morning.”

  Lady Dragon knew that voice. Before the name of the owner popped into her head, Lady Bear said, “Lady Raven? Is it truly you?”

  “Is that my name? So hard to remember. To focus. Where am I? How did I get here?”

  “You were arrested,” Lady Bear said. “Don’t you remember? Sentinel City, the shadow gates you were supposed to open.”

  “The city.” Mad eyes flashed in the shifting light. “Koda! The abomination did this to me. Free me! I’ll kill him.”

  “Enough of this.” Lady Dragon chanted and the isolation cell door melted. The light of the glowing steel revealed a bare chamber with nothing but a cot, sink, and toilet. No Morgana.

  “They took her down,” Lady Raven said. “Always down. Strapped her to the gurney and pushed her past me. Down!”

  The last word came out as a mindless howl. It seemed little remained of the once promising Sub-Hierarch’s mind. Lady Dragon was tempted to kill her and put her out of her misery, but that was a decision for Morgana to make.

  They retraced their steps to the staircase and descended to the final landing. The door at the bottom was wide open and beyond it was a single vast room filled with scientific equipment, computers, and surgical supplies. In the center of the room, under a buzzing florescent light was a gurney upon which a naked woman was strapped.

  Morgana, at last.

  The Hierarchs rushed across the lab, Lady Dragon in the lead. A burst of fire severed the straps holding Morgana in place. They took a knee in front of their leader for the first time. Lady Dragon feared to even look her in the face.

  The gurney creaked and the soft pat of bare feet hitting the floor followed. “Who are you then?” Morgana’s voice sounded a little scratchy from lack of use and was surprisingly deep.

  Lady Dragon finally looked up and removed her mask. “I am Indra Ara, the current Lady Dragon and leader of the Le Fay Society. We have been trying for so long to free you, Mistress.”

  Tears of joy ran down Lady Dragon’s face. They’d done it. At long last they’d done it.

  Morgana pursed her lips and tried to remember. Ara, she
knew that name from somewhere. She scratched the itch that had been troubling her for the past hour and wracked her brain. After a few seconds she acknowledged defeat.

  “Your name is familiar, but I can’t remember from where.”

  “My many-times-great grandmother, Lela Ara, served at your side before the fall of the Society of Magic.”

  Morgana snapped her fingers. “Of course, Lela. She was a brilliant fire wizard, loyal to the end. She fought well, but didn’t survive the betrayal. On your feet, no need to kneel before me. I expect loyalty, not worship.”

  The five women rose and the others removed their masks as well. They ran the gamut from mid-thirties to late fifties. Not the most impressive-looking group she’d ever encountered, but Morgana sensed they each had a well-above-average magical potential.

  Her gaze shifted to the ruby scepter in Indra’s hand. “Where did you find my scepter? Not to mention a portable gate.”

  “When I was thirteen I stumbled on Grandmother Lela’s journal. I found clues that led me to it. The elf artifact was simply a matter of searching everywhere until we stumbled across both halves. Forgive us for taking so long to free you.”

  Morgana waved off the apology. “You’re here now, that’s what counts. Let’s see.”

  Indra flinched when she reached out and tapped the gate. Morgana hit a particular sequence of outer runes and a moment later, for the first time in forever magic flooded into her. Her whole body quivered as exquisite sensation rolled over her. Oh, how she’d missed this feeling.

  When she recovered her senses, the others were staring around in confusion. One of them, the youngest if her guess was right, a woman in red with eastern features asked, “I can feel my magic. How?”

  “The portable gate has more than one setting. You had it on default which only allows one person to access it. I switched it to broadcast so everyone can use it, though we’re still limited to fire magic. My scepter?”

  Indra held it out to her and Morgana took it up. The smooth crystal felt right in her hand and soon warmth flooded her. She felt like herself for the first time since she arrived on this miserable rock. She did need some clothes though.

  A quick glance around the lab didn’t turn up anything too promising then she spied a spare lab coat. Not ideal, but better than walking around naked.

  When Morgana had slipped into the lab coat she turned to her rescuers. “How many others does this wretched facility hold?”

  The five women shared looks before Indra said, “No one has ever announced a total population for the Lonely Rock. Judging by the size of the building, I’d guess more than two hundred, but less than a thousand.”

  Several hundred potential new recruits. Morgana smiled. That would make an excellent start. “Time for a recruitment drive.”

  Morgana led the way out of the basement lab and up to the next floor. She’d been vaguely aware of the others held prisoner on her floor, but she’d never interacted with them. A gesture with the scepter melted all the doors into puddles of metal. The joy of wielding magic had never felt so sweet.

  Like small frightened animals, the prisoners poked their heads out into the hall. All eyes were drawn to Morgana and she raised her hands in greeting. “Sisters, your time of liberation has arrived. Will you join me in teaching our captors their proper place?”

  A moment of silence was followed by a thunderous cheer. When she led the way back to the ground floor, her following had more than doubled. An hour later every cell was emptied and two hundred and fifty-eight angry wizards were following behind her as she made her way to the top floor where she sensed the last of the guards lurked. Perhaps Professor Butcher would be there as well. She’d like to give him a proper goodbye.

  At the top of the last flight of stairs waited a simple locked door. Morgana leveled her scepter at it and sent a burst of fire out the tip. The door vaporized in an instant. Thirty men huddled inside, some at computer consoles, others crouched behind tables and a file cabinet. A flash of white caught her eye.

  “Professor. I’m so happy I got this chance to see you one last time.”

  “Please. I was only doing my job. The Department ordered me to discover ways your flesh might be of use. I didn’t want to hurt you, but they made me.”

  “Made you?” Morgana ignored the terrified stares of the other men and focused on Butcher. “I saw no one with a gun down in the lab. There was only the two of us and it looked to me that you were quite enjoying your work.”

  “If I refused I would have lost my job and they’d have sent someone else to do it anyway. Please understand.”

  “Far better for you if you’d found a new line of work. Then you wouldn’t be here.” She leveled the scepter at him. “It was my liver you were after this time, wasn’t it?”

  She didn’t give him a chance to speak. “Burn!”

  He screamed as her magic scorched his internal organs. Lucky for him Morgana’s anger got the best of her and she used too much power. His heart boiled in blood and he fell over dead.

  She bore the rest no particular grudge and killed them in an instant. That bit of house cleaning done she turned to her gathered followers. “Now we shall go forth and remind the world why wizards are most fit to rule. The ones that survive at least.”

  A huge roar went up from the former prisoners. They left the prison and made their way down to the water where a single motorboat floated. Not nearly big enough to transport all her new followers. A quick search turned up a pair of battered, out of use patrol boats. They didn’t have motors, but ropes connected them to the good boat and they were on their way.

  Morgana stood at the rear of the boat and watched the island for a moment. She raised the scepter and focused. “Apocalypse!”

  A roar was followed by a mushroom cloud rising from the island. No wizard would ever be trapped there again.

  5

  Overwhelmed

  The control room in Central broke into chaos. Engineers and technicians argued about how to pierce through the smoke of the explosion. Malice ignored them and stared at the slowly dissipating mushroom cloud filling the feed from the satellite in constant orbit over the prison. She’d seldom found herself at a loss for words, but this was one of those times.

  When she first joined the Department, she’d read the histories of the war with the Society of Magic. The world had barely recovered from the Elf War when fighting broke out. That miserable conflict claimed half a million lives, a tiny amount compared to the Elf War, but still plenty. Now it appeared they’d have to fight it again.

  Well, the people of the world had beaten Morgana and her followers once, they could do it again. Malice just wished she’d found the secret her ancestors used to defeat the half-elf all those years ago. Whatever they did, she doubted it involved running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

  “Silence!” Her command sliced through the din and brought everyone up short. “Stop worrying about the explosion and find their boat. The enemy is getting away as we twiddle our thumbs. Put our naval and air assets on alert. When we have a target I want them ready to attack. Someone get me the president. He needs to know what’s happened. And where’s Conryu Koda? If there’s a wizard war coming, we’ll need our strongest dark magic user on the front line.”

  The occupants of the control room all stared at her.

  “Move!”

  That got them underway. She crossed her arms and returned her gaze to the monitor. The image eased away from the island and out over the ocean. Less than a minute later it zoomed down onto a boat towing some junk behind it. Small figures soared above the vehicles. She tried to count individuals, but there was too much movement and they were too small. The Department had to have a record of the prison population. She’d read it later.

  “Director?” a nervous young woman said. “The chief of staff says the president is free for a lunch meeting. Is that okay?”

  “Fine.” Maybe by then Malice would have some answers for him.

 
“I have Dean Blane on line two for you, ma’am.”

  She hobbled over to the phone and snatched it from the man waiting for her. “Blane, we have a situation. I need you to recall Conryu from the Kingdom. Tell him to portal back. I want him in Central by the end of the day.”

  “I’d be only too happy to do that, Director,” Dean Blane said. “Unfortunately, Conryu’s gone missing.”

  “What?” This couldn’t be happening. Not now when they actually needed him.

  “I was waiting for more information before contacting you, but since you called I figured you should know. According to Jemma he was sucked into whatever portal they had him investigating then the doorway itself vanished. They don’t even know where to begin looking for him.”

  “I knew it was a bad idea to send him out of the country.”

  “You did approve the assignment,” Dean Blane said.

  “I’m aware. We’ll just have to manage without him.” Malice filled her in on the details of the escape. “We’re organizing a counterattack now, but if it fails, we may need the teachers and any students capable of fighting to deploy. At the moment, the enemy is heading toward Europe, but that might change at any point.”

  “I’ll get everyone organized. We’ll be ready, don’t worry.”

  Malice hung up and grimaced. As if she needed that sentimental fool worrying about her. As long as she prepared the students and teachers, Malice didn’t care about anything else.

  “Someone send the prisoner files to my office.” She’d read as many as possible before her meeting. The president would want details, she needed to find the right ones.

  Conryu blinked and the library came into focus. After his interaction with the Goddess he’d gone on to the realm of wind. The spirit that greeted him there resembled a giant glowing hawk. He hadn’t known what to expect, but the spirit simply embraced him, said thanks for being so nice to the pixies, and granted his blessing. The process couldn’t have been any simpler.